You may have noticed I don't do the meme thing. Just feel too awkward/plain ol' weird trying them, I guess.
But oh my, I found one I love, so this is gonna be a rare day in my blog. I read Ilona's "I Am From" and was awed by it--simply awed! And if I've copied any of her responses, it's only because we have a ton of things in common.
If you'd like to make your own, please visit Fragments From Floyd here for an outline, an explanation and a boost.
But first, here is my "I Am From":
I am from backyard clotheslines on hot afternoons,
from Ivory soap and red-checkered tablecloths. I am from church parsonages with tiny rooms and doors always open
and from roasts baking in ovens as the sun goes down and children stop skipping rope.
I am from roses hanging over picket fences,
and fields of wild lavender blowing warm scent through our Ford's windows on road trips. I am from mornings spent with Captain Kangaroo and Friday evenings with the Brady and Partridge families.
I am from Christmas at grandparents' houses and travelers always searching for a better place,
from people near and those very far away.
I am from the quiet ones who are lost in thought and those who spend their lives loving simple things which others never pause to see.
From reading in bed when the rest of the house lay dark
and from stories of family long gone. From people-are-watching-so-you-need-to-behave and folding down my ankle socks just right.
I am from old Baptist churches with hard wooden pews
and services on sweaty summer nights with people waving fans labeled
Owl's Drug Store and Fountain on a stick.
I'm from the busy shores of California, from a people who migrated from silent, muddy mid-western plains,
from mashed potatoes and fried chicken on Sundays with company after church.
I am from Yosemite summers in tents and swimming in ponds just down the road.
From the days of plaid dresses and ponytails and hopscotch and hula-hoops.
From moms at home wearing aprons, from Batman on tv during your after school cookies and milk, and from that scent of sprinkler water sizzling on sidewalks.
I am from family reunions potluck-style and cousins who you saw just once a year.
I am from scrapbooks and photo albums all yellowed with age,
and from hundreds of memories playing in my head like fading, speckled home movies.
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Other "I Am From" posts in Blogdom:
Nearest Distant Shore
Pazette
Miss O'Hara
Is There Anything of Interest?
Magically Mama
Semicolon
Promptings
Owlhaven (Mary)
Owlhaven (Mary's son)
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In her comment to my last post, Saija mentioned that contentment saves a lot of money.
My oh my, yes indeed it does.
Paul (the Bible Paul) had to learn contentment and so did I. I had to learn to stop coming away from my friends' houses and wishing I had a couch like theirs, a kitchen like theirs, and cats and tv's and dishes and cars and paintings like theirs.
I had to learn to stop sighing, "If I just had ____, I would be happy." Because you know how that goes.... You get _____ and then 8 days later you are saying, "Hmmm, well, no really! If I just had _____ too, then, I mean it, I would be happy." And so it goes, for like, the rest of your life because happiness from things is wispy, like smoke.
I had to learn to get happy today. Happy with my own couch, my own kitchen, my own cat and my own everything else. I had to learn to use my God-given creativity and rearrange my oh-hum furniture until it pleased me. I began to clean what I owned and feed what I owned because God was watching me inside my very walls to see if I was ready, truly ready, for new stuff. He stood there and took notes and decided if He could trust me with more.
He watched me while I walked around my house... I think He stood there with a clipboard each time I gave things away, because when you let things go, you make room for more. And when you give away what you love, well, you make room for more than new stuff--you make room for God to bless you with something beyond just stuff. A spirit of giving opens a lot of good doors, and well, maybe this is just me, but I think it keeps some bad doors closed.
But beyond, beyond, beyond all this, I had to learn to become content with God, Himself.
A.W. Tozer said something like, "We get into trouble when we start saying, 'All I need is God and--.'" I didn't know what he meant at first, but I eventually learned, especially when God took me through a l-o-n-g stripping away process. He kept pruning my life of things and places and jobs and people I'd always sworn I could not live without. I mean, nobody died and I didn't end up in a hospital, or anything--I want to make that clear. But in ways only God, Himself, could manage, He stripped away the props and crutches I'd clung to to help me through Life. And He tore down walls brick by brick, the very walls which had obscured my sight of Him--and I saw that He was Life, instead.
And something wild happens when you finally become content with God. You discover that He can trust you now... He can lavish you with your secondary desires because He knows they will not capture your heart and take you away from Him. It's as though this verse starts happening to you:
"And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God..." Deuternomy 28:2
... it's like you find yourself running down a street and being overtaken by a mob of blessings...and you are amazed! But the more amazing thing, now, is that God hangs-out at your house and keeps you company. And what more could you ever need?
***
"O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days." ... Psalm 90:14
"For He has satisfied the thirsty soul, and the hungry soul He has filled with what is good." ... Psalm 107:9
Minutes ago I visited a certain message board (which shall remain nameless), one in which the current topic was: Is it possible to live on one income?
Basically there were two groups of women posting:
Group A listed all the problems of living on one income (it wasn't working for them).
Group B listed all the good points of living on one income (it was working for them).
And never the twain did meet. Well, not really. It seemed neither group was actually--gasp!--listening to the other and both were determined they were right. Which, ok, is the way of most Internet message boards.
(Hey, you know it's true.)
Anyway, I didn't post anything there, myself--I thought I'd save it for my own blog (safer territory--things were turning scary.). And basically, all I want to do in this post is share a skeleton list of ways I save money.
Living on one income requires a whole different way of thinking/living/being. You must be willing to learn new, odd-to-you things and become very good at what you do. You have to do research and invest time, effort and energy into succeeding. You have to be intelligent and willing to do math. So. Much. Math.
You need to view problems as motivating challenges, instead. (Spending hours at message boards, complaining, won't solve problems. Er hem.)
It takes a determined, motivated person to step-up to a challenge and conquer it. To remain hopeful and optimistic when the sailing for the first couple years is not smooth.
A few ways I save money and enable myself to stay home?
1. I often cook from scratch and make my own mixes. Yet, some things are cheaper to buy ready-made--I love to research that sort of thing and take notes (calculate energy costs of using an oven, etc.) and then decide for myself which way is cheaper and healthier. Oh, and I usually make homemade lunches for Tom to take to work.
2. We do not own a clothes dryer (by choice). I hang our clothes to dry in our basement or outside on a line.
3. We buy our clothes second-hand. Now, don't scream! If you know where to go, what colors/styles look best on you, and what to look for in these places, well, you'll walk away with incredible bargains. After you've saved a few hundred dollars you start to think of yourself as pretty darn clever.
4. Speaking of education, I use both the Internet and the town library to teach myself not only how to save money, but about anything-- history, cooking, economics, writing, decorating and health. I try keeping myself inspired.
5. We saved tons of money this winter by keeping the thermostat at 62 degrees (lower at night) and just using a small electric heater in whichever room we occupied at the time. I use other major appliances during off-peak hours.
6. For exercise I walk around our neighborhoods and also work-out at home (way cheaper, less embarrassing and more convenient than a public gym).
7. I paint our rooms myself and do all my own decorating. Talk about doing much research and self-education over the years! Deciding exactly which look you're aiming for saves a lot of money and leads to far fewer money mistakes and clutter.
8. We currently do not pay for tv cable (though we have in the past). Instead, we bought an antenna (a one-time charge of $50 ), the kind you place in your attic. It pulls in 14 stations which is plenty for us.
9. Only occasionally do we drive to the theater to watch movies--and the tickets are only $3.50 anytime day or night because it's a 'second-run' theater (I love that place--so 1940's old-fashioned).
10. I try hard to pay our bills on time (and then try not to kick myself when I occasionally pay one late). I use my credit card only for online purchases and usually pay it off each month.
11. We keep a list of things we'd like to buy and then when summer comes around, we shop at yard sales for those. We also use our income tax return for some things on that list and for major home repairs and improvements.
12. I grow a garden each year (container gardens are easy and require little space). We do all our own yard work, wash our own car, shovel our own snow and make our own coffee (well, 98% of the time).
13. We've tithed for 27 years (highly controversial when you admit to that on the Internet, I know!). But hey, I truly believe in 'give and it shall be given unto you' and I've watched that concept work for us these many years. It's made a huge difference in our finances.
14. And a big one--we've always bought only houses we could afford.
Again, that's just a starter list.
Mainly, Tom and I try to be careful of what I once heard called "leaky hose spending." You know, all those little ways that money swirls down the drain foolishly. But we've noticed it takes a lot of honesty to face leaky hose spending and to plug it up. Sometimes it takes help from God, Himself, to acknowledge where we've been careless and foolish and to forgive ourselves afterward.
But then, that's partly why He's there.
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